Hosiery and the manufacture of the same.



No. 868 ,815. PATENTED OCT. 22, 1907.

R. w. SCOTT.

HOSIERY AND THE MANUFACTURE OF THE SAME.

A'PPLIUATION FILED SEPT. 20, 1905.

UNITED STATES PATENT OFFlGE.

ROBERT w. sco'r'r, or LEEDS POINT, JERSEY, ASSIGNOR OF ONE-HALF To LoUIs N. o. WILLIAMS, OF OGONTZ, PENNSYLVANIA.

Application filed September 20, 1905. Serial No. 279,306-

To all whom it may concern:

Be it known that I, ROBERT W. Score, a citizen of the United States, residing in Leeds Point, New J er P sey, have invented certain Improvements in Hosiery and in the Manufacture of the Same, of which the following is a specification.

The object of rny invention isto provide a shaped or fashioned sock or stocking which can be made in a simpler and cheaper manner than usual, thepreferrcd' -1 0 form of the stocking being susceptible of manufacture by a continuous operation which produces a tubular web, upon either a flat or a circular machine, the web in the latter casebeing formed by rotating knitting instead'of by reciprocating knitting, such as is usually resorted to in the manufacture of fashioned stockings. By making the stocking, or rather the blank of which the stocking is to be formed, upon one machine, I avoid all expensive transfer operations such as are necessary when more than one machine is employed in the fabrication of the stocking blank.

In-the accompanying drawings, Figure 1, is a view of the foot and part of the leg of a stocking made accordance with my invention; Fig. 2', is a view of the blank from which the stocking is made; and Figs. 3 to 8 inclusive, are needle diagrams illustrating the method of knitting said blank.

It may be well to state at the outset, that in knitting what are termed fnlLfashioned stockings it is customary to commence the knitting at the widest portion of the leg, the knitting being performed upon flat machines having spring-beard needles and the strip being knitted of a uniform width until the calf portion is reached, whereupon the strip is narrowed by transferring groups of stitches from the end needles on both sides of the machine toward the center of the fabric, these groups of stitches being moycd inwards, a needle. at a time, between successive operations, until the fabric has been sufficiently narrowed for the ankle portion of the stocking, the latter being then knitted of uniform width until the formation of the heel is necessary. At' this juncture, two yarn guides are thrown into action, one l employod for knitting a projecting heel piece at one s do of the ankle web, and ti; other for knitting a corresponding heel piece at the opposite side of said ankle web, the intcrvcningncedies of the machine having stitchescast from thonL' The heel strips are knitted of uniform width down to the point where the rounding of the heel is to be cffected, ivhcroupon each of the strips is narrowed to the desired extent by transferring groups of stitches in the same manner as when narrowing for the calf portion of the stocking. When the knitting of the heel strips has been completed, they are cast from the needles I and the selvaged inner edges of the heel strips are run Specification of Letters Patent.

nosmnv 'AND THE MANUFACTURE OF THE SAME.

Patented Oct. 22, 1907.

l upon the outermost needles of a separato machine, known as a footing machine, the intermediate needles of this machine receiving the loops around the instep portion of the leg web which are thrown from the needles of the leg machine when the formation of the heel strip was begun. The foot web is then kiiitted upon the needles of the second machine, the web being narrowed at each side to form the desired instep gussets, and being also narrowed'at the toe so as to properly round the same; This method of manufacture is a slow and tedious operation, necessitating the use of expensive machincry and the highest class of skilled labor to operate it.

The main aim of my invention has been to so form the stocking as to permit of the use, in its production, of a web produced by tubular knitting preferably upon a high speed circular or rotating machine in place of the usual low speed reciprocating machine, and to effect the desired shaping or fashioning of the web without the necessity of using transfer points for transferring stitches from needle to needle or filling-up points for transferring a previously formed stitch of the knitted web to a naked needle, for the use of such transfer or I filling-up points further reduces the production of the machine, since the knitting operation must be arrested while such points are in operation.

Referring to the drawings, it will he observed thuttho stocking illustrated in Fig. 1, is very similar to an ordishaped calf 2, a narrow ankle 3, a wide hcol 4, av narrow foot 5, a substantially seamless union of the webs across the front of the too as at (i, and a scam 7 extending from the point of the toe underneath the foot and heel,

around the corner ofthe heel and up along the back of I the heel, ankle, calf and log. In my improved stock ing, however, there are no side scams at the front of the heel, as in the ordinary full-fashioned stocking, and the leg portion and foot portion are not made separately, the stocking being produced from a web or blank of the character shown in Fig. 2, and this web being made in a manner which will be understood 0n reference to Figs. I

3 to 7 inclusive.

It will be noted on reference to Fig. 2, that the web has, at each edge of the same, bordering wales 9, which, when the web has been folded and seamed or sowed togcther to form the stocking, extend throughout the underside of the toe, the sole of the foot, the bottom of the heel, and the rear of the ankle, calf and leg of the stock- In its preferable form, the fashioning or shaping of the different par ts of the stocking is effected by a widening operation, the various widening wales being introduced between the standing wales of the fabric and the bordering wales. 'lhe knitting of the web is oom menced at the too, and the machine employed for thd nary full-fashioned stocking having the wide leg 1, a

g in

production of the fabric is by preference a rotary machine with a. pair of needle-carryiug segments movable from and towards each other around a full or interrupted circle of needles in cylinder, the latter needles l0 (represented by the circular series of dots in Figs. 3 to 7,) forming the standing wales and the widening wales of the fabric, and the segment needles ll forming the bordering wales of the fabric. A machine of this char actor is shown in my Patent No. 607,002, dated July 5, 1898. The machine knits round-and-round, a limited portion only of the needles l0 being in action at the beginning of the operation, and these needles beingflanked by the bordering needles 11, the knitting yarn being carried across from one set of needles ll to the other, and the floating yarns or elongated sinker wales being subsequently severed or trimmed off, with the result that, in either case, sinker wales or ends of yarn 1 project from the bordering wales, as shown at 12, in Fig. 2, hence a characteristic feature of the stocking or blank, is that the outer edges, along the bordering wales, are unselvagcd,

In starting the knitting operation, only the needles 10 from a to a Fig. 3%, may be in operation so as to produce a narrow web such as shown at a in Fig. 2, with bordering wales 9 at each side of the same produced upon the needles 11. As the knitting proceeds. however, these needles 11 are racked apart and needles 10 are successively brought into action at each end of the set of needles aa until the full amount of widening for the toe has been effected, as indicated at b in Fig. 2, by which time the relation of the needles 11 to the needles 10 will he that represented in Fig. 4, the needles 10 from b to b being in action. The widening wales are preferably introduced in such a manner as to prevent the formation of eyelet. holes, as shown for instance, in my Patent No. (514,349, dated November 15, 1898. The knitting of a web of uniform width for the foot of the stocking now proceeds until the point (i is reached, whereupon there is a further introduction of needles l0 and racking out of needles it for the pur pose of producing the gussets l3, this widening opera tion proceeding until the web reaches the line a, Fig. 2. by which time the needles ll bear the relation to the needles 10 shown in Fig. 5, the needles .10 from a to 0 being in action. This completes the stocking up to the instep lino, represented by the dotted line ;r::; in Fig. l; the insertion of the widening wales l3 serving to impart to the heel the additional width necessary for the instep portion of the stocking as compared with the foot and ankle portions of the same. The knitting of the web of fabric of this width now pro cccds until the linef, Fig. 2, is reached. the fabric thus produced constituting the back of the heel. \\'hcn this has been done the bordering needles I l are racked in again to the point I) as shown in Figv 6. and the stitches are cast. from the needles 10 from I) to c and said needles are withdrawn from action. The production of fabric upon the needles l0 from h to I) and upon the bordering needles, then continues until a proper length of fabric for the ankle portion of the stocking has been completed, as represented by the line .g in Fig. 2, whereupon the bordering needles l l are again racked outwardly and additional widening needles l0 are successively introduced until the web has been widened t the extent indicated by the line h in Fig. 2: th

bordering needles now bearing the relation to the needles ll) represented in Fig. 7; Fabric is now produced upon the needles 10 from h. to h Fig. 7, and upon the bordering needles, until the desired length of web for the leg of the stocking has been completed, whereupon the prixluction of a new stocking web is begun.

The blaiik thus produced is completedinto a stocking by folding it along the central line, looping the front ends 14, of the bordering wales, to the endsl5, of the body wales of the foot, so as to form the seam 6 across the toe, then seaming or otherwise uniting together the unselvaged edges 12 of the web up the line 0, then sewing diagonally across the bordering wales 9, as indicated by the dotted lines yy, Fig. 2, until the unselvaged edges 12 are. again reached at the point f, and then uniting these unselvaged edges from said point to the top of the stocking. The result will be a stocking having but a single seam 0X tending substantially parallel with the bordering wales along the bottom of the foot and heel and alongth'e rear of the ankle, calf and leg, and extending diagonally across said bordering wales at tlie rear of the heel. The heel thus produced is an acceptable substitute for the usual full-fashioned heel and is produced without in any way complicating or increasing the expense of knitting the blank from which the stocking is made; the whole knitting operation being straightforward round-and-round knitting, which method of knitting is, as is well recognized, the simplest and cheapest method which can be adopted.

If it is desired to produce a stocking having a seamless tubular leg it is only necessary to so construct the machine that when the proper width of fabric for the leg is reached the bordering needles 11 will completely close the gap between the needles 10.

The term tubular knitting or knitting round-and round applies as well to the operation of a circular machine, and to the operation of that class of machines having opposite straight needle beds and a yarn guide traveling to the right along one side of the machine and to the leitialong the other side and crossing at the ends of the needle beds, and in Fig. 8, I have shown bardering needles 11 in connection with the standing Wale needleslO of such a machine. While in the operation of this machine the yarn guides are reciprocated'; the crossing of the said yarn guides at the ends of the needle beds renders such operation the equivalent of round-and-round knitting and the comparative slow ness of operation of reciprocating yarn guides, as compared with a. rotating yarn guide, may be counteracted to a great extent by the use of a plurality of yarn guides; the shortness of the sinker wales or float yarns between the two sets of bordering wales in a machine of this type reducing the waste to a minimum.

Having thus described my invention, I claim and desire to secure by Letters Patent:- 1. A stocking having borderlngwales extending under the bottom and up the back of the heel, and widening wales introduced between said bordering wales and the standing wales on each side of the heel, the bordering wales at the bank of the heel being seamed dialzonally across so as to contract said heel from the corner to the top. substantially as specified.

2. A stocking having a heel shaped by means of widening wales at each side or the same introduced between the standing wales and bordering wales at the bottom of the h n]. substa liully as specified.

, 3. A stocking having a heel with widening wales on each side of the same introduced between the standing wales and borderhn, wales at the bottom and rear of the heel,-

the bordering wales at the rear of the heel being connected by a scam extending (iiasonally across said \vales, snbsian tially as specified.

4. A stocking having a heel provided on each side with widening wales introduced between the standing wales and bordering wales at the bottom and rear of the heel, said bordering wales, at the bottom of the heel, being connected by a seam substantially paralleiwith the bordering wales, and at the rear of the heel being connected by a seam ex tending: diagonally across the same, substantially as specified.

5. A stocking having widening wales introduced inside of sets at boi-dering wales to shape the toe, the rear of the heel being shaped by a seam extending diagonally across .said bordering wales, substantially as specified.

6. A stocking having widening wales introduced inside of sets of bordering wales to shape the calf. the rear of, the heel being shaped by a seam extending diagonally across the bordering wales located at that point. substantially as specified.

7. A stocking huvinc' Widenim, wales introduced inside of sets oi bordering wales to shape the toe and the bottom of the heel. the rear of the heel being shaped by a scam extending diagonally across said bordering wales, substan tially as specified.

8. A stocking lliivilit: bordering wales extending along the bottom of the toe, foot. and heel, and up the back of the heel, ankle and cult, and a single seam connecting said bordering wales, said 'aeam being substantially parallel with the bordering wales in all portions except the back ol the heel, at which point it extends diagonally across said \ruics, substantially as specified.

9. Astoclging having bordering wales extending along the bottom of the toe, foot, and heel, and up the back of the heel, ankle, calf and leg, and a single seam connecting said bordering wa1es,'said seam being parallel with the bordering wales in all-portions of the stocking except in the rear of the heel, at which point it passes diagonally across said wales, substantially as specified.

' 10. The mode herein described of knitting foot, heel and ankle portions of a stocking web, said mode consisting in knitting round-and-round upon the needles of a machine to form a web of the proper width for the foot, then,

while continuing the r0uud-and-round knitting, gradually widening said web and knittingn length of said widened fabric to form the heel web, then casting the stitches from a number of end needles so as to reduce theuwidth or the web, and then knitting round and round upon said reduced number of needles inform the ankle webysubstantinlly as specified.

11. The mode herein described of knitting n. web for the to widen said web and continue the production of said of courses, then casting, stitches from the outermost standing; wale needles and widened web throughout a number the racking in the bordering Wale needles and continuing round-andiound knitting apon the reduced number of needles to form the ankle web, substantially as specified,

in testimony whereof, I have signed my name to this specification, in the presence of two subscribing witnesses.

ROBERT w. sco'rrrv Witnesses:

Wnurnn CHISM, Jos. H. KLEIN. 

